Ex-aide To Mayor Gets School Post

Some Raise Question Of Patronage

Superintendent Says Politics Uninvolved

March 08, 2007|By DANIEL E. GOREN; Courant Staff Writer

State Rep. Kelvin Roldan, who before his election to the General Assembly was a senior aide to Hartford Mayor Eddie A. Perez, has been hired by the city's school system at a starting salary of $90,000 a year.

Roldan, 28, will start next week as the district's acting director of strategic partnerships. His main duties will be coordinating relationships and soliciting donations from the corporate world, private foundations and universities -- locally and nationally -- school officials said.

FOR THE RECORD - CORRECTION PUBLISHED FRIDAY, MARCH 9, 2007.Hartford Mayor Eddie A. Perez appointed himself to the school board, then was elected chairman by the full board. A story on Page B1 Thursday incorrectly reported that Perez is chairman of the school board because he is the mayor. In the same story, the first name of Steven J. Adamowski, superintendent of schools, was misspelled as Stephen.

Should Roldan become the permanent director, he could see a salary bump to between $109,000 and $129,000 -- a range similar to that of school principals, officials said.

Roldan made $74,000 working for the mayor but stepped down when he was elected in November 2006 to represent the city's 4th House District, a job that pays about $30,000 a year. At the time, Roldan said he did not want any appearance of a conflict of interest.

But Roldan's hiring by School Superintendent Stephen J. Adamowski was met Wednesday with skepticism by some of the mayor's critics. They described Roldan's selection as patronage and said the 28-year-old legislator's main qualification was his close relationship with Perez.

As mayor, Perez also is chairman of the school board.

``Well, he knows the mayor, and he needed a place to go,'' said state Rep. Art Feltman, who is running for mayor against Perez. ``I understood that he was leaving the mayor's office because there was some perceived conflict of him being an appointee of the mayor and being a state legislator. So I don't know why him working for the mayor as the chairman of the board of education represents less of a conflict.''

Roldan did not return repeated phone calls for comment.

Adamowski denied politics played a roll in hiring Roldan and insisted he chose him without consulting with Perez.

``I can tell you this, at no point did Mayor Perez discuss [Roldan's] employment with me,'' Adamowski said. ``This was entirely my initiative. And this was something that I initiated several months ago.''

The superintendent said he wants talented people on his team regardless of where they come from, and he has full authority to hire his core staff without anyone's approval or a formal search process.

Adamowski said he met Roldan -- whom he describes as a ``brilliant young man'' -- around the time he was hired as superintendent in September 2006. Roldan then was a Perez aide in charge of the mayor's educational initiatives -- work Adamowski said was part of what qualifies Roldan for the job.

That job is an expanded version of a post once held by John H. Motley, who joined the schools after 16 years at St. Paul Travelers Connecticut Foundation. At the foundation, he worked with city schools coordinating donations of money and supplies for various school programs. Frustrated by the slow pace of the school system's bureaucracy, Motley left in May 2006.

In searching for a new business liaison, Adamowski said, he called a number of current donors. Asked who they thought would be good for the job, many brought up Roldan's name, Adamowski said.

He refused to identify donors who recommended Roldan, saying the conversations were confidential.

Until his recent election, Roldan had worked for Perez's administration for six years, focusing on education, home ownership and economic development initiatives. His resume also lists positions as a foreign language teacher at Avon Old Farms School and teaching city children at the Hartford Conservatory, where he also was director of alumni affairs.

He holds a bachelor of arts degree from Middlebury College in Vermont, with a double major in Chinese language and literature and in political science.

Roldan also studied abroad at the Harbin Institute of Technology in China and Giggleswick School in England, according to his legislative website, and attended Avon Old Farms School, Lewis Fox Middle and Wish Elementary schools in Hartford.

Roldan is pursuing a master's degree in public policy at Trinity College.

Adamowski expects Roldan to work full 40-hour weeks -- keeping track of his time by electronic log -- and performing his duties as a legislator and student outside of his work for the school district.

Adamowski -- who has said he wants to streamline the district's administration -- said Roldan's new position is actually three positions consolidated into one: Motley's and his two assistants'.